Synology have improved this case and it is great to see the new 2-Bay chassis being utilised. The device arrives with much better specs than the DS216 before it and with almost double the stats and an 64bit Chip, the DS218 is an impressive starter NAS.

features

Easily the best standard 2-Bay NAS synology have released. If your budget is tight, then this is possible the best price vs power NAS out there, supporting almost every application and NAS task you need. Though Plex Transcoding is not really an option - though native transcoding is more than possible.

performance

The improved Realtek CPU and DDR4 memory mean that options like 4k, transcoding natively and most file level network applications are conducted very well.

value

All in all, the best standard class NAS from Synology we have seen in a few years. Recommended for Surveillance, backups, file level access and sharing files easily - this si a good, solid NAS.

design

Those familiar with NAS may find the unit a little limiting - but for the budget and the hardware, it is still quite a bargain.

features

The lack of an intel / x86 based CPU, mean that transcoding in plex is not really an option.

performance

It will stumble a little with higher end / dense multimedia applications.

value

If your budget can allow it, we recommend the DS218+ unit as it will give you far higher power at your finger tips

Arrives with 2yr warranty for enclosure and 3yr warranty for hard drives

Includes HGST Deskstar NAS v2 (Retail) 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drives

Combining Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 and 2 HGST hard disks will provide you with a solid, long term Storage solution.

Combining Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 and 2 HGST hard drives provide you compact but highly efficient Network-Attached Storage solution. Giving you the ability to share and distribute your media throughout the home and accross the internet, create Apple Time Machine backups, conduct Surveillance tasks and still furnish you with a strong Synchronisation system running in the background.

Vital Statistics (per drive)

Model Number: HDN726040ALE614 H3IKNAS400012872SWW 0S04005

Rotation: 7200RPM

Interface: 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s

Form factor: 3.5 inch

Capacity: 4TB

Cache: 128MB

Warranty: 3yr

Back of the Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 box (the connections)

LAN Network Port / Ethernet Port – Giving your Synology storage device to both send, receive and manipulate files over the internet. However that is just the tip of the iceberg. Via the connection of devices such as IP camera, mobile apps and other system tools, you can use multi-purpose applications for homes, small business and enterprises uses.

USB 3.0 – The newer and faster evolution of Universal Serial Bus, USB 3.0, can transfer data at up to 5Gb per second. Now becoming commonplace, you can transfer data between devices such as external hard-drives and flash storage keys. In more advanced, larger devices you are able to connect peripherals such as mice and keyboards to the enclosure, however we highly recommend contacting the manufacturers website here for more details on connectivity and compatibility

USB 2.0 - A common connection in most devices, USB or Universal Serial Bus gives your Synology the ability to data between devices such as external hard drives and flash storage keys at up to 480Mb per second. In some larger, more advanced enclosures, you are able to connect peripherals such as keyboards and mice to a Storage enclosure, however we recommend contacting the manufacturers website here for more details on compatibility.

Free Synology DiskStation NAS SpanStor Build & Test

You can have JBOD,RAID 0,RAID 1,SHR set up on Synology DiskStation NAS DS218. We offer our completely free and highly recommended SpanStor build service for your Synology 2-bay enclosure.
We ensure that your Synology box and HGST drives are in perfect working order before we send it out, at no additional cost. That's not all.
We can install the latest Synology firmware or even construct a custom build from the ground up! Depending on the nature and complexity of the setup you request, this can take from a few minutes to a few hours, all done here at SPAN, thereby saving you time and money.
Possible RAID options for your Synology 2-bay box are explained below.

Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 RAID options

JBOD- is a cost-effective network storage solution. If you have a lot of temporarily data to store, JBODs are an economical solution. Mind that the data is not critical or you have an effective backup scheme in place.
JBOD is either a single or number of disks which are grouped together and presented to the Operating System as a single volume, called 'Spanning'. If you lose a single disk in the JBOD then you possibly will lose data, as the concept of a JBOD does not include not fault tolerance.

RAID 0 is ideal for non-critical storage of data that have to be read/written at a high speed, such as on a video editing station or an image retouching. RAID 0 offers great performance, both in read and write operations. All storage capacity is used, there is no overhead.

RAID 1 (mirrored drive) is ideal for critical storage, like accounting systems. It is also suitable for small servers in which only two data drives will be used (disc mirroring). It offers excellent read speed and a write-speed that is comparable to that of a single drive. In case a drive fails, data do not have to be rebuild, they just have to be copied to the replacement drive (mirroring hdd
). It can be used as back up mirror.

Choose your RAID here ->Spanstor Build And TestIf you buy this Synology DiskStation NAS and hard drives we do free build and test for the unit and hard drives. So you can use this device straight out of the box. All free of charge in DS218 price.
Same Day and Next Day Delivery available in UK and fast WorldWide delivery for products in stock.
FREE Business Quotes available for products with specific requirements or quantities. Often cheaper than Amazon.

Order before 4pm*, and in-stock products will be with you the next day. (Or Saturday. Or even Same Day).

WorldWide Deliveries

Wherever you are in the world, we can get your order to you at high speed.

SpanStor Build & Test

Our free service helps you choose the right NAS and Drives, then makes sure it is built & ready to use as soon as you get it.

Professional Live Support

We are here to assist you - before, during and after your purchase, by phone, email or live chat.

SPAN.COM Local Map:

2.9 Miles from New Malden (KT3).
3.2 Miles from Kingston Upon Thames (KT).
3.7 Miles from Esher (KT10).
5.9 Miles from Hampton (TW12).
2.8 Miles from Thames Ditton (KT7).
7.1 Miles from Richmond (TW9).
5.9 Miles from Wimbledon (SW19).
5.7 Miles from Teddington (TW11).
10.8 Miles from Earlsfield (SW18).
8.3 Miles from Mitcham (CR4).
12.7 Miles from Croydon (CR).

Synology have improved this case and it is great to see the new 2-Bay chassis being utilised. The device arrives with much better specs than the DS216 before it and with almost double the stats and an 64bit Chip, the DS218 is an impressive starter NAS.

features

Easily the best standard 2-Bay NAS synology have released. If your budget is tight, then this is possible the best price vs power NAS out there, supporting almost every application and NAS task you need. Though Plex Transcoding is not really an option - though native transcoding is more than possible.

performance

The improved Realtek CPU and DDR4 memory mean that options like 4k, transcoding natively and most file level network applications are conducted very well.

value

All in all, the best standard class NAS from Synology we have seen in a few years. Recommended for Surveillance, backups, file level access and sharing files easily - this si a good, solid NAS.

design

Those familiar with NAS may find the unit a little limiting - but for the budget and the hardware, it is still quite a bargain.

features

The lack of an intel / x86 based CPU, mean that transcoding in plex is not really an option.

performance

It will stumble a little with higher end / dense multimedia applications.

value

If your budget can allow it, we recommend the DS218+ unit as it will give you far higher power at your finger tips

Arrives with 2yr warranty for enclosure and 3yr warranty for hard drives

Includes HGST Deskstar NAS v2 (Retail) 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drives

Combining Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 and 2 HGST hard disks will provide you with a solid, long term Storage solution.

Combining Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 and 2 HGST hard drives provide you compact but highly efficient Network-Attached Storage solution. Giving you the ability to share and distribute your media throughout the home and accross the internet, create Apple Time Machine backups, conduct Surveillance tasks and still furnish you with a strong Synchronisation system running in the background.

Vital Statistics (per drive)

Model Number: HDN726040ALE614 H3IKNAS400012872SWW 0S04005

Rotation: 7200RPM

Interface: 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s

Form factor: 3.5 inch

Capacity: 4TB

Cache: 128MB

Warranty: 3yr

Back of the Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 box (the connections)

LAN Network Port / Ethernet Port – Giving your Synology storage device to both send, receive and manipulate files over the internet. However that is just the tip of the iceberg. Via the connection of devices such as IP camera, mobile apps and other system tools, you can use multi-purpose applications for homes, small business and enterprises uses.

USB 3.0 – The newer and faster evolution of Universal Serial Bus, USB 3.0, can transfer data at up to 5Gb per second. Now becoming commonplace, you can transfer data between devices such as external hard-drives and flash storage keys. In more advanced, larger devices you are able to connect peripherals such as mice and keyboards to the enclosure, however we highly recommend contacting the manufacturers website here for more details on connectivity and compatibility

USB 2.0 - A common connection in most devices, USB or Universal Serial Bus gives your Synology the ability to data between devices such as external hard drives and flash storage keys at up to 480Mb per second. In some larger, more advanced enclosures, you are able to connect peripherals such as keyboards and mice to a Storage enclosure, however we recommend contacting the manufacturers website here for more details on compatibility.

Free Synology DiskStation NAS SpanStor Build & Test

You can have JBOD,RAID 0,RAID 1,SHR set up on Synology DiskStation NAS DS218. We offer our completely free and highly recommended SpanStor build service for your Synology 2-bay enclosure.
We ensure that your Synology box and HGST drives are in perfect working order before we send it out, at no additional cost. That's not all.
We can install the latest Synology firmware or even construct a custom build from the ground up! Depending on the nature and complexity of the setup you request, this can take from a few minutes to a few hours, all done here at SPAN, thereby saving you time and money.
Possible RAID options for your Synology 2-bay box are explained below.

Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 RAID options

JBOD- is a cost-effective network storage solution. If you have a lot of temporarily data to store, JBODs are an economical solution. Mind that the data is not critical or you have an effective backup scheme in place.
JBOD is either a single or number of disks which are grouped together and presented to the Operating System as a single volume, called 'Spanning'. If you lose a single disk in the JBOD then you possibly will lose data, as the concept of a JBOD does not include not fault tolerance.

RAID 0 is ideal for non-critical storage of data that have to be read/written at a high speed, such as on a video editing station or an image retouching. RAID 0 offers great performance, both in read and write operations. All storage capacity is used, there is no overhead.

RAID 1 (mirrored drive) is ideal for critical storage, like accounting systems. It is also suitable for small servers in which only two data drives will be used (disc mirroring). It offers excellent read speed and a write-speed that is comparable to that of a single drive. In case a drive fails, data do not have to be rebuild, they just have to be copied to the replacement drive (mirroring hdd
). It can be used as back up mirror.

Choose your RAID here ->Spanstor Build And TestIf you buy this Synology DiskStation NAS and hard drives we do free build and test for the unit and hard drives. So you can use this device straight out of the box. All free of charge in DS218 price.
Same Day and Next Day Delivery available in UK and fast WorldWide delivery for products in stock.
FREE Business Quotes available for products with specific requirements or quantities. Often cheaper than Amazon.

Synology DiskStation NAS DS218 reviews

This is option for those who are not quite happy with DS218play. This has more RAM, hot swap trays and USB copy button.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

Is there a difference between network drive, backup drive, network hard drive and nas drive?

There is no physical difference between a network drive, backup drive, network hard drive and NAS drive, the MAIN difference is about the use of the equipment. So:

A Network Drive is a area on storage that is useable to anyone on the network and will be visible to the device you are using if you have the correct login/password.

A Backup Drive is a storage device is a area of NAS or DAS storage that is used JUST for backups and only for writing, not reading - it backs up one or multiple devices on a regular basis.

A Network Hard Drive is the same as a network drive, but instead of a portion of online storage that is network/internet accessible, it is an entire disk drive. Much larger and often includes a RAID drive acting as a fall-back.

A NAS Drive can do all of the above. It can be set up to be a backup drive for all your devices, it can make either a portion or ALL of the storage available over the internet or network, it can do all of these at the same time and can give you much, much more access options thanks to NAS software from the likes of QNAP, Synology, WD, Asustor, Buffalo and Drobo.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is a server at home?

A server at home is a network attached storage device (NAS) that is like a computer, but with the emphasis on storage space. They can be purchased for as little as £100 and mean all your data can be accessed, used and backed up to and from overt the internet or your home network (WiFi etc). Bigger and more expensive home servers can do more, such as virtual computers, surveillance recording and multimedia access.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is meant by diskless NAS?

A Diskless NAS means that it a network storage device that is sold without any Hard Drives inside. Many NAS Brands like WD and Buffalo will only sell their NAS server devices with Drives already installed - this can often increase the price significantly, as well as limit the Hard Drives you want to install. A diskless NAS is a device that you can choose which drives, how many and the capacity you want and install them yourself, for a more bespoke NAS storage device. Installing the Hard Drives is very easy and you can often save a lot of time and improve your long term storage by choosing a diskless NAS and selecting the drives yourself.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is a NAS external hard drive?

A NAS external Hard Drive is an external storage device that, unlike USB 3.0 and eSATA external Hard Drives, is accessed used the internet or your home network. So that means you can access the contents (DATA) of the NAS on your iPhone, iPad, Smart TV, PS4, XBOX One, Sonos Sound System, Bose system, Laptop, Smartphone and pretty much any DLNA enabled device without having to connect to it with a cable. Meaning you do not need to carry duplicates of all your data on all your devices, but can have one central NAS storage devices that all the other devices can access.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

How do I connect to my NAS remotely?

You can connect to your NAS server remotely with the mobile applications that are free with your NAS Brand manufacturer for iOS and Android. Alternatively you can use a number of desktop applications from the big brands QNAP and Synology NAS to access your device remotely. Lastly you can create a network and internet accessible drive with iSCSI and then setup software (Virtual Machine, backup, Surveillance and more) on your Mac or Windows machine to read and write to the NAS remotely.

The most popular and recommended RAID levels for a 2-Bay NAS and 4-Bay NAS from Synology and QNAP are:

RAID 0 - Meaning all drive storage is pooled together into 1 big drive - MOST UNSAFE RAID 1 - Drives are duplicated so you lose half the available storage, but have a complete, up to the second copy of your data RAID 5 - You lose 1 drive of data storage space, but data is spread across all the available drives and a small piece of information called PARITY is created each wave/stripe that makes a blueprint of all the data RAID 6 - Same as above, but it removes two drives worth of space and protects you against the loss of two Hard Drives

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is a RAID hard drive?

A RAID Hard drive is a Hard Disk Drive that is designed to be used in a RAID configuration - in simple terms it is a drive that can be installed with multiple other drives of the same type (such as WD Red RAID Drives, WD Purples Surveillance RAID Drives and Seagate Ironwolf NAS RAID Drives). These are designed to be on for long periods of time and for handling data that is shared and/or duplicated across multiple drives at once - constructed with better vibration, head and access controls). Most other drives are designed to work on their own.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is raid on a NAS?

RAID on a NAS is a means to protect yourself from losing your data due to hard drive failure. Hard Drives are the 2nd most vulnerable area of a NAS device and if a drive fails and you do not have a copy of the data elsewhere, you will most likely lose it all. RAID gives you a safety net (called REDUNDANCY) which means you can afford to lose 1, 2 or even 3 hard drives with the right configuration. The most common options are:

RAID 0 - Meaning all drive storage is pooled together into 1 big drive - MOST UNSAFE RAID 1 - Drives are duplicated so you lose half the available storage, but have a complete, up to the second copy of your data RAID 5 - You lose 1 drive of data storage space, but data is spread across all the available drives and a small piece of information called PARITY is created each wave/stripe that makes a blueprint of all the data RAID 6 - Same as above, but it removes two drives worth of space and protects you against the loss of two Hard Drives

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is a personal cloud storage device?

A personal Cloud storage device is a piece of Hardware, Like a NAS, that gives you the access, freedom, speed and utility of popular 3rd party cloud providers such as Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, Amazon S3 and more. However unlike those providers that hold your data on a server farm hundreds or thousands of miles away, where you it can be broken into, a Personal Cloud (NAS) lives in your home/office and can be protected with both bespoke AES-256bit encryption, individual login credentials and if the worst case scenario, can be simply unplugged from the network/internet.

It is also considerably cheaper in the long term.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

How do you connect to a NAS?

You can connect to a device in several ways:

- You can connect to a NAS via your home network as long as it is connected to the same router/switch that your other devices are connected to, via cable or over Wi-Fi (the devices, not the NAS)

- You can connect over the internet using the NAS manufacturer’s respective software on desktop or mobile platforms for Mac, Windows and Android devices

- You can also access the data as a network drive (where the location of the drive with be an IP - 192.168. etc.) and then the drive can be read and written to as needed

Thank you

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

How does a NAS device work?

Excellent Question. A NAS devices like a computer that is dedicated to storing data that is made accessible across all your internet enabled devices. It connects to your home network (in simple terms, the internet connected network in your home or office) and makes the data that is store on it accessible. You can also access the data from outside the phone via WiFi at hotspots and other buildings, or via your mobile 3G or 4G internet connection.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

Do you really need a NAS?

If you have data spread across multiple devices without a single backup location, then YES, you really do need a NAS drive. As it will make backing up with multiple devices easier, more automated and reliable.

If you are a business with large amounts of data that needs to be accessible quickly, across multiple machines or outside your office environment for off-site staff or clients, then YES you needs a NAS.

If you want your internet accessible data to be 100% inaccessible when needed (for security) and are considering a Cloud provider or a NAS, BUY A NAS!!! It is cheaper in the long run and can have individual and bespoke security measures.

16/11/2017 | Popular Question | |

What is a NAS drives for home?

A NAS drive for Home is the means of storing your data in a central location that can be used for more home and entertainment based applications. Often these are 2-Bay or 4-Bay NAS Devices that support applications such as Plex, DLNA Server support, Backups like Apple Time Machine and Surveillance over IP cameras from companies such as Edimax and Reolink. The Hard drives in a NAS Drive for Home are recommended to be WD Red NAS Drives or Seagate Ironwolf NAS drives.

* Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: Product information and images on this page are for guidance only and are liable to change without notice. Some details may refer to the whole category or range, rather than this particular item. Specifications shown are our best interpretation of information supplied by the manufacturer, and are as up-to-date as possible. If you require clarification on any item, please contact us and we will be glad to help you.